WEB ANALYTICS!! Is it really necessary ??

We like to believe that all there is to digital marketing is to do some search engine optimization, send out an email blast every once in a while, get our agency to create a flash-heavy “brand experience” website, or slap together a mobile app in the corporate-approved shade of eggshell white. A small bang here, a big sizzle there, one big paid search campaign and … VICTORY!
Reality, as is its wont, is much more complex.

Richard Branson said:
“Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple.”

Is there any place where these words are more relevant than in our big data world?
The small valley between the website and the visitor deepens if the data is not served in a way that is purposeful and useful for the visitor.

The visitor’s reaction on looking the information should not be like “What the heck is it showing?”but unpacking the data by the visitor should increase the chances that it clearly communicates the story we want to tell.

Web Analytics can prove to be a lot useful in this regard as:

• Web analytics is the practice of measuring, collecting, analyzing and reporting on Internet data for the purposes of understanding how a website is used by its audience and how to optimize its usage.
• It focuses on in-depth comparison of available visitor data, referral data, and site navigation patterns as well as being able to tell us the amount of traffic we receive over any specified period of time.
• It can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, e-mail marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.
• So by analyzing websites and finding exit pages, landing pages, bounce rates etc could prove to be very helpful in improving the website. It wont be much to say that the website could become the talk of the town (town== no geographical boundaries!! ) in no time if web analysis is done efficiently.

Various Useful reports are:

Visitors: This shows many things about the people coming to your site, including where they’re located geographically, what language they speak, how often they visit your site and what computers and browsers they use to get there.

Traffic Sources: Here you’ll find how people got to your site. You can track which sites link to your page or keywords people search to find you.

Goals: If you’re aiming for established objectives, reports in the Goals tab will be helpful to you. Here you’ll find data about desired actions from users, including downloads, registrations and purchases.

Ecommerce: You’ll only need this tab if you’re selling items on your site as it houses all merchandise, transaction and revenue activity information.

E-COMMERCE TRACKING BASICS

When eCommerce tracking is set up, it allows for an in-depth analysis of most of the key eCommerce metrics such as

• revenue generation on a product level,
• individual product performance,
• conversion rates,
• average order values.

Analyzing these metrics provides information that can drive decisions, which could later result in significant performance gains. Access to this information also makes understanding customer behavior and product interaction much easier. It allows site owners to identify key areas for improvement.

Goals

Goals are a versatile way to measure how well your site or app fulfills targeted objectives. You can set up individual Goals for discrete actions like visits to a Thanks for registering! page, a Download completed screen, a minimum visit duration, or a specific purchase amount.

You can measure conversions, or completion rates, for each Goal you set up. Combine Goals with Funnels to analyze visitor actions leading up to a Goal. If you set a monetary value for a Goal, you can also see the value of conversions.

Examples of goals include:

• “Thank you for registering” pages
• flight itinerary confirmations
• “Download completed” page

With the internet reaching everywhere in every field, it’s important to ensure your website and digital marketing is running on all cylinders. Your potential customers should be able to find what they need on the digital shelf as easily as in real life. Sadly, many sites leave visitors frustrated – losing potential customers. However, the advantage of your online storefront is that you can understand where you’re losing customers and work to improve your shopping experience.

So what are you waiting for??
Get started with the analysis !!..

Eiti Jain